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Retooling our global edge
In his first address to deal exclusively with education, President
Barack Obama proposed lengthening the school year and increasing pay
for high-performing teachers to regain an American edge in the world
economy, Reuters reports. "Despite resources that are unmatched
anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools
crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace
us," Mr. Obama told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "The
future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens, and my
fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation." To
fulfill this potential, the president outlined a "cradle-to-career"
plan that expanded early childhood programs and gave more money to
states that raised student standards, tracked student progress, and
cut drop-out rates. The president made clear that his administration
will put the full weight of the federal government behind the
reforms, tripling funds for education in the 2010 fiscal year
beginning October 1. "In a 21st-century world where jobs can be
shipped wherever there's an internet connection, where a child born
in Dallas is competing with children in Delhi... education is no
longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it is a
prerequisite," he said.
See also:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-obama-education_wedmar11,0,6571296.story
See also:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/opinion/12thu1.html
Bureaucracy can't teach
School reformers for decades have tried different ideas and
techniques to try to make schools work better. All these reforms
have been based on an unspoken assumption: that better organization
is the key to fixing whatever ails schools. The theory is that by
imposing more organizational requirements -- better teacher
credentials, more legal rights, detailed curricula, the pressure of
tests -- schools will get better. That's the theory. The effect,
however, is to remove the freedom needed to succeed at any aspect of
teachers' responsibilities -- how they teach, how they relate to
students, and how they coordinate their goals with administrators.
The extent and effects of bureaucracy may indeed surprise people
from the real world, writes Philip K. Howard, a civic leader and
public policy activist, in his lively new book, "Life Without
Lawyers."
See the report:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090226093423.htm
The battle over '21st-century' skills
At least 10 states have committed to "21st-century skills" -- the
idea that kids need to think critically and creatively, be
technologically savvy, and work well with others, according to USA
TODAY. The idea is now commonplace in curriculum reform, but a group
of education scholars fears the trend is eating up classroom time
better spent learning essential content. The issue, they say, is
whether kids learn to think by reading great literature, doing
difficult math, and learning history, philosophy, and science -- or
if they can tackle those on their own if schools teach them to
problem-solve, communicate, use technology, and think creatively.
The 21st-century skills movement is "a fragmented approach with
uncertain cognitive goals," according to E.D. Hirsch, Jr., founder
of the Core Knowledge Foundation and author of a series of books on
what students should learn year-by-year in school. Most likely to
suffer, he says, are low-income students, who get less background
information in history, science, and literature at home than
middle-class students. Ken Kay, co-founder of the Arizona-based
Partnership for 21st Century Skills, calls criticisms by Hirsch and
others "a sideshow that distracts people from the issue at hand:
that our kids need world-class skills and world-class content." Kay
notes that virtually all of the industrialized countries with which
the USA competes "are pursuing both content and skills."
ACLU sues over gay-straight high school club in Florida
Two students at a north Florida high school are suing their school
board over its banning of a Gay-Straight Alliance club, according to
The Associated Press. ACLU attorney Robert Rosenwald, Jr., argued
before a federal judge that Hannah Page and Jacob Brock had been the
target of anti-gay epithets and threats of violence at school, and
started the Gay-Straight Alliance to open a discourse among
students. Attorney Frank Sheppard, who represents the school board,
said the district's main complaint is the name of the group, since
the district does not approve of groups dealing with sexual
orientation and has an abstinence-based sex education curriculum.
"If they change the name and comply with Nassau County School Board
policies, they can meet," Sheppard said. Rosenwald pointed out that
the Fellowship of Christian Athletes meets on the high school
campus, and its booklet includes references to sexual issues,
including a student pledge to remain sexually pure and an article
about dealing with homosexuality in the locker room. U.S. District
Judge Henry Adams, Jr. gave the school board three days to respond
to the booklet.
Working for professional development that works
Professional development (PD) in education is a "tarnished brand"
whose consumers are "angry," "unsatisfied," and "resigned,"
according to Hayes Mizell in an article in the spring issue of JSD,
a publication of the National Staff Development Council. PD's brand,
which he poses as a group of associations and experiences
unintentionally built up over decades, must change its "context,
content, and process" if it is to be something educators will value
and consume. This will happen, Mizell writes, if educators
knowledgeable about PD through personal study, conferences, and
collegial networking become advocates for PD reform. "The most
direct and naturalistic approach [to this advocacy] is through
informal conversation. In one-on-one or small group exchanges,
advocates for a new brand of professional learning can begin by
casually raising the subject of staff development." The focus should
be on whether educators consider their professional development to
be useful and how it can be more so, even in schools with recent
innovations like instructional coaches and learning communities.
Advocates can eventually approach other educators in positions of
authority with specific, workable proposals, and move on to civic
groups and institutions to engage the public over strategies to make
professional development more effective.
See also:
http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2009/03/04/030409tln_norton.h20.html
Schools instructed to spend stimulus funds quickly
"Spend funds quickly to save and create jobs," is the message in a
five-page guidance document from the Education Department to
governors, state education commissioners, and thousands of school
superintendents, The New York Times reports. It is the first
indication of how the department will funnel $100 billion to the
nation's 14,000 school districts over the next few months, $44
billion of which will be available before the end of March. Hundreds
of thousands of job losses in schools have been projected for this
fall because of a steep drop in state tax revenues. School stimulus
money will be distributed, the guidance document said, after states
apply for the financing and provide congressionally mandated
"assurances" to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that they are
complying with federal education laws. The communication warned
educators to spend the stimulus money, which is temporary, in ways
that would minimize the dislocation that could follow when it ran
out in two years. Some department officials are describing the
exhaustion of the stimulus money in two years as a "cliff" over
which school districts could plunge if they do not spend the money
wisely.
Choosing pragmatic experimentation over rigid ideology
The Century Foundation has released "Educational Strategies That
Work," which examines Oklahoma's universal pre-K program; the
voluntary inter-district transfer program in St. Louis, Missouri;
and New Jersey's innovative, low-income "Abbot" public schools. The
brief is a response to President Obama's declared intention to
identify, support, and expand successful domestic programs and
eliminate those that don't work. In each program examined in the
brief, "the ideas pursued were an outgrowth of pragmatic
experimentation, as opposed to adherence to rigid ideology," writes
Greg Anrig, vice-president for policy at the foundation and author
of the paper. Anrig suggests the federal government should create
incentives for states and localities to pursue similar strategies,
and launch an active campaign to explain their implementation across
the country. "All of these ideas would promote long-term, broadly
shared benefits, and at least in some cases, have the dual virtue of
helping to create productive jobs during a period when the United
States is experiencing what may be the worst economic crisis since
the Great Depression," Anrig states in his introduction.
Read more:
http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Education/Greg_Education.pdf
A safe place to get their act together
In a profile of the National Guard's Youth ChalleNGe, The New York
Times cites early results of a study by MDRC suggesting it is the
most successful large-scale program yet evaluated to help dropouts.
More than 7,000 teenagers each year graduate from its sites in 28
states. Nine months after leaving the program, participants were 36
percent more likely than a control group to have obtained a G.E.D.
or a high school degree, more than three times as likely to be
attending college, and nine percent more likely to be working full
time. "The impacts are pretty large," said Harry J. Holzer, a labor
and poverty expert at Georgetown University. "So few interventions
have proven to be cost-effective for the out-of-school,
disadvantaged youth population when rigorously evaluated." The
camps, which have a military atmosphere, don't admit youths with
felony records and expel those who fail a drug test, steal, or
fight. Participation is voluntary. About 20 percent of entrants
withdraw from each cohort, mainly in the first two weeks. "By taking
[participants] away from their neighborhoods, we're giving them a
safe place to get their act together," explained Army Colonel Janet
Zimmerman, Ret., who runs the camp. "These youths have been told
they are failures. Here they find that if they straighten up, others
will believe in them."
See the report at
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/512/overview.html
KIPP and Mastery may expand in Philly
Philadelphia superintendent Arlene Ackerman has proposed that
charters or other private operators should take over 35 failing city
schools, prompting two of the district's most successful charters,
KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) and Mastery, to consider
expansion, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Mastery's CEO
Scott Gordon called Ackerman's Imagine 2014 draft proposal "a
breakthrough opportunity," so promising that Mastery has halted
talks with school officials in other large cities about expansion.
Marc Mannella, CEO of KIPP Philadelphia, said the superintendent's
plan is so intriguing that for the first time in its 15-year
history, the company might consider turning failing public schools
into charters. "I'm really looking forward to digging in and
figuring out how we can make what we do well help what the district
needs," Mannella said. Both organizations have a record of helping
struggling students excel, though they are not without their
detractors. Although Ackerman mentioned KIPP and Mastery in her
proposal, she emphasized that others could bid for schools,
including successful principals. "There are going to be site visits
to outside providers to take a look at their success, not only here
but in other places," she said. Her blueprint for reorganizing
schools awaits approval from the city's School Reform Commission.
Differentiated instruction without judging books by their covers
As a result of a federal court case known as P.J. v. State of
Connecticut, more intellectually disabled and special education
students are now taught in the state's regular classrooms. This has
led to widespread differentiated teaching, The Hartford Courant
writes, often without a teacher's aide, and requires preparation of
complex lessons on the part of teachers to reach every student. "You
tend to teach to the middle, you lose the bottom, and you struggle
to keep the top kids engaged," explained one principal. Since
September, however, several schools in East Hartford have been
taking part in a research project sponsored by the Benchmark
Education Co., a publisher of education materials. Benchmark is
donating money, books, and training for teachers and literacy
coaches over the next two years to study its "leveled readers"
books, which have the same covers but come in three levels of
reading difficulty so teachers can simultaneously discuss the same
topic with struggling, average, and advanced readers. Researchers
from New England College and the University of Massachusetts are
testing children at the three schools to see if their reading scores
improve. Third-grade classes at one participating school have
students reading from the first-grade to the fifth-grade level.
Also see
http://www.edutopia.org/differentiated-instruction-student-success
Weighing alternatives in the revision of NCLB
A new study from Education Sector by accountability expert Charles
Barone examines Tennessee's growth model system as an alternative to
the prescriptions of NCLB. "Are We There Yet? What Policymakers Can
Learn From Tennessee's Growth Model" finds issues that state and
federal policymakers should consider as they contemplate growth
model use. Barone allows that the Tennessee Growth Model both
focuses on achievement of all children rather than those around the
"bubble of proficiency" and credits schools for progress that NCLB,
as currently written, does not. However, the Department of Education
ranks Tennessee lowest of any state in terms of proficiency
standards, so the state may set the bar for adequate progress too
low. Tennessee's "expected score" system estimates a student's path
to proficiency in this time, but many will not reach proficiency in
three years, or ever. The complexity of the system's statistical
analysis makes it less transparent for parents and the general
public. Barone concludes that "the use of growth models represents
an opportunity to improve upon the state accountability systems
currently in use under NCLB... However, the growth models currently
being used by 15 states under the federal pilot program vary greatly
in their specific characteristics." Those specifics, Barone states,
matter.
BRIEFLY NOTED
Nanoscience and micropipettes, not just for the 'academic cream'
A North Carolina teacher leads struggling students to national
achievement in science.
New York's mayor pushes hard to retain control of schools
Michael R. Bloomberg forecast "disaster" and "riots" if lawmakers
failed to reauthorize a 2002 law that gave him sweeping control.
Money for nothing
UC Berkeley professor Bruce Fuller argues that the president's new
education initiatives pour money into "stale federal programs that
have long failed to elevate students' learning curves."
'Tidal wave' of homeless students hits schools
The economic downturn has uprooted thousands of families, with
serious ramifications for both a future generation and the
overburdened public school system.
Reporting student abuse in the classroom
If you saw a colleague strike a student, would you report the
incident? What if you feared retribution from the principal?
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